Raised Field Nutrient Cycling: Implications for Hydrologic Controls and Landesque Capital

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Barbacoan World: Recognizing and Preserving the Unique Indigenous Cultural Developments of the Northern Andes" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Beginning around AD 600, the Barbacoan speaking peoples of the northern Ecuadorian highlands began building alternating ridge and canal raised field systems. One of the leading hypothesized functions of these raised fields is their role in nutrient cycling. In this scenario, decayed organic matter is mucked from the canals and redeposited atop the agricultural ridges supplementing crops with growth limiting macronutrients. This paper explores this hypothesis in the context of highland Ecuadorian raised fields and examines some of the potential implications for long-term use, hydrologic management, and landesque capital. To examine this hypothesis, we draw on the results of soil analyses conducted on raised fields at the site of Zuleta and examine historic aerial images that show complicated raised field hydrologic networks indicative of intentional design features. We also discuss the benefits that this use of raised fields might have had on soil fertility and how raised fields may continue to provide these benefits even hundreds of years after their abandonment.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Barbacoan World: Recognizing and Preserving the Unique Indigenous Cultural Developments of the Northern Andes   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38597.0